Myth or Fact about felt pen stocks in 70's

[greylynx]

Let us go back to the 70's and early 80's.

Certain gun manufacturers, especially Weatherby, were being accused of taking a felt pen to create more swirls in the wood for that swirly wood look.

My AO search on this subject did not produce anything.

[sns2]

I don't know about Weatherby, but interesting that you post this. A couple weeks ago, I was at the gun counter at Cabelas watching a group of young guys check out guns. The dude had a T3 Hunter in 300 asm in his hands. I looked at the gun he was fondling and noticed that it had tiger striping in the really dark wood from the forend tip to the butt stock. I asked to look at the gun when the young fellas left. I told the dude working there that I had never seen a piece of wood like that on a Tikka. He said that he has seen so many of them lately that he feels that the pattern is "screened" on during the staining process. After looking at the consistency of it, I tended to agree with him.

You never know...

[Dick284]

I have seen fiddling or striping put on stocks with a blow torch, usually it was plain beech or birch, but if done tastefully, and then stained it was sort of palatable.

[catnthehat]

Originally Posted by sns2

I don't know about Weatherby, but interesting that you post this. A couple weeks ago, I was at the gun counter at Cabelas watching a group of young guys check out guns. The dude had a T3 Hunter in 300 asm in his hands. I looked at the gun he was fondling and noticed that it had tiger striping in the really dark wood from the forend tip to the butt stock. I asked to look at the gun when the young fellas left. I told the dude working there that I had never seen a piece of wood like that on a Tikka. He said that he has seen so many of them lately that he feels that the pattern is "screened" on during the staining process. After looking at the consistency of it, I tended to agree with him.

You never know...

This doesn't surprise be at all.
The Berreta group ( of which Tikka is owned ) has had a finish called " extra wood for quite some time - the shotguns especially.

Even the Pennsylvania/ Kentucky rifles were often " tiger striped" with muriatuc acid or with flame .
Hacker Marten was a famous muzzle loading gunsmith and did restorations for the Smithsonian, and his method was detailed by Ned Roberts in one of his books.
Alvin Linden also detailed flame finishing in his book on stock making.
Cat

[bobtag45]

In the mid eighties I attended Armourer's courses at Winchester, Remington and Ruger. Each of those courses were accompanied with a factory tour. As we were potential and existing customers and not tourists we were given pretty much free access to all the departments. The stockmaking sections were filled with duplicating machines that produced stocks every few minutes. I highly suspect mass production methods would prohibit closely examining each and every stock for slight imperfections requiring color. There was someone at the end of the line grading the stocks picking out those slated for higher grade models but he only spent a few seconds on each stock. I highly doubt there were felt markers in use. There just was no time.
A note to the stockmaking process. Remington and Winchester had a mechanical method of doing the checkering on the stocks. Ruger always advertised that their stocks were "hand checkered". Sure as heck they had one room with a dozen women in it all hand checkering stocks with a dremel type of tool. All those women yakking drowned out the sound of their dremels.

[bobinthesky]

Never heard of Weatherby doing it but Beretta sure did with the "extra wood" stocks. In fact, I think Beretta even had crap wood stocks covered with a nice looking covering too.
Never heard of the felt pen thing either but it wouldn't surprise me.

[purgatory.sv]

I have been fooled again.

[saskbooknut]

Not only are there factory guns with upgraded wood.

There are gunsmiths in the US upgrading wood with dark mineral stains that look good enough to knock your eye out.

So....be careful when buying a "restored" and upgraded Parker, Fox or other desirable collector gun.

[petew]

Originally Posted by catnthehat

This doesn't surprise be at all.
The Berreta group ( of which Tikka is owned ) has had a finish called " extra wood for quite some time - the shotguns especially.

Even the Pennsylvania/ Kentucky rifles were often " tiger striped" with muriatuc acid or with flame .Hacker Marten was a famous muzzle loading gunsmith and did restorations for the Smithsonian, and his method was detailed by Ned Roberts in one of his books.
Alvin Linden also detailed flame finishing in his book on stock making.
Cat

For these with Curly maple etc they used a Nitric acid blend called Aquafortis, and heated it over a hot element till the wood turns brown, card it, and repeat until the softer wood is dark and the denser, hard curl turns a lighter color and show up like stripes. This method is not faking the natural curl, it is accenting what is there. I am building a Southern Mountain rifle now with a CM4 stock that will be finished with Aquafortis and tru Oil.

I have seen burned in/on finishes that looked ok, but nothing like real natural burl or curl in the wood.

Pete

[greylynx]

So there might be some truth when gunsmith Hagar (Bruce) told me my Sako

75 is nothing more than an old truck axle, a slab of Sitka Spruce, and a

reworked old German WW2 Mauser action.

I know Hagar was just kidding.

[catnthehat]

Originally Posted by petew

For these with Curly maple etc they used a Nitric acid blend called Aquafortis, and heated it over a hot element till the wood turns brown, card it, and repeat until the softer wood is dark and the denser, hard curl turns a lighter color and show up like stripes. This method is not faking the natural curl, it is accenting what is there. I am building a Southern Mountain rifle now with a CM4 stock that will be finished with Aquafortis and tru Oil.

I have seen burned in/on finishes that looked ok, but nothing like real natural burl or curl in the wood.

Pete

I realize that Aquafortis was also used ( I have used it myself when I built custom muzzle loaders) but I was speaking of adding stripes on plain wood and ram rods , not accenting the natural grain, Pete.
Cat

[petew]

Originally Posted by catnthehat

I realize that Aquafortis was also used ( I have used it myself when I built custom muzzle loaders) but I was speaking of adding stripes on plain wood and ram rods , not accenting the natural grain, Pete.
Cat

There is a big diference in faux stripes and the natural. Both can look good but natural is something else.
This is what I want to achieve on my build. The stock has it in it, if I can bring it out.

[catnthehat]

I never did light faux striping, but have always strived to bring out the best of a stock's grain, and Aquafortis certainly can do that.
Cat

[Unregistered user]

"Antiquing" was a big thing in the furniture biz back then too.